Category: Carnivores

For all you meat-eaters out there

Special Fried Rice – Your Way

Laura NanaLeave a comment

Soooooo erm this may be my new favourite thing for work lunches and easy dinners! I make a basic special fried rice recipe and then let the family customise it how they like! Its really quick to make and is light on pots and pans so no need to worry about washing up AND you can pack it with vegetables!

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Ingredients

Must haves:

2 cups Basmati Rice
Handful Peas
Handful Sweetcorn
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 teaspoons Mirin
2 teaspoons Rice Wine Vinegar
2 cloves of Garlic thinly sliced
3-5 Spring onions sliced

Optional items:

Sliced mushrooms
Handful Small prawns
1 diced Red/Orange/Yellow Pepper
1 tbsp Ketjap Manis
3 Ready cooked Mackerel fillets
2 Salmon fillets cubed and cooked
2 cups Cooked chicken – strips, wings, bashed up thighs 

Handful Coriander
2 eggs, either scrambled or cooked as an omelette and sliced up
Crushed chilli flakes
Sweet Chilli Sauce

Method:

I have a fail-proof fluffy basmati recipe but feel free to use your own if you prefer.

Rinse your rice a few times in cold water if you want it really fluffy or leave it to soak in water for 30 mins. Boil the kettle, heat oil in the pan and throw in your (drained) rice , stir to cover in the oil and let it warm a little. Pour the boiling water over the rice, The water should come about 3cm over your rice. Put a lit on it with a little crack and let it simmer.

It’ll start to hiss once all the water has evaporated – this can take anywhere between 10-15 mins. Take a look at it. If it looks done, turn the heat off, remove the lid and place a tea towel/cloth over the rice and put the lid back on. Leave it for as long as you need to, it’ll keep warm and the towel will soak up excess steam to keep the rice fluffy. If it doesn’t look done, sprinkle on a little more water, put the lid back on and keep checking every 2-5 minutes.

 

The rest is just an assembly job – fry off the garlic, spring onions and any of your selected food items from the optional list that require cooking. I don’t bother with sweetcorn and peas as it takes seconds for them to warm through. Add in your sauces then add your rice to the pan to fry off. Put it all together, decant to a serving bowl and dive in!

Serve with some sweet chilli sauce on the side or some extra Ketjap Manis.

Chicken Curry

Laura NanaLeave a comment

I made this for a bunch of friends last night and they really enjoyed it, I changed how I usually make the base of my curry which resulted in a much thicker gravy.

Ingredients

1 cinnamon stick
10 cardamoms
12 cloves
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
Thumb of ginger
5 Birdseye chillis (optional)
2 tbsp oil
500g boneless and skinless chicken thighs cut into small bitesize pieces
1 tsp madras curry powder
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp tomato purée
1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes or 3-4 freshly grated ones
Chopped coriander stalks and leaves (separated)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp Ghee (optional)

Method

Put the onion, garlic, ginger and Birdseye chillies in a processor and blitz until fine.
Add the oil to the pan, on a medium heat and add the cinnamon, cardamoms and cloves. Heat until fragrant then add the onion blend. Cook this out for 3-5 minutes to get rid of the water. Add your ground spices (except the garam masala) and salt to taste.

Add your chicken to the pan and stir well, coating in the base. Let it cook for a few minutes then add your tomatoes and tomato purée and the chopped coriander stalks and a cup of hot water.

Stir well and leave it to cook for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Taste it to make sure you’re happy with the flavour and adjust anything you need to. Stir in the ghee, if using, then sprinkle over the garam masala and your coriander leaves.

Serve with rice, naan bread and an onion and lemon salad….Delish!!!

A nice chicken supper

Laura NanaLeave a comment

This is a really nice recipe that allows you to potter round the kitchen without too much fuss and delivers a meal suitable for a dinner party or a nice change for a Sunday lunch. Chicken is poached in a stock packed with flavour and set alongside parmentier potatoes and roasted butter-nut squash. The poaching liquor is then used to make a deliciously thick and flavourful sauce to coat the chicken with. Take it from me, once you’ve got the hang of this one you’ll be making it time and again. Please post your comments below on how you go and any ideas you have for improvements!

Poached Chicken

Ingedients

4 Chicken Breasts
100ml white wine
300ml Milk
1 chicken stock cube
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 leek, split lengthways and roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of Rosemary, chopped
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornflower
2 tbsp water
A small handful of Parsley, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic
4-5 potatoes (Maris Piper, King Edward or simple white potatoes will do), peeled and diced into cubes
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut up
Olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. In one baking tray add olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of chopped rosemary then throw in the diced potatoes and smush it all around. In another tray do the same with the butter-nut squash but before smushing, crush in 2 cloves of garlic. Put them both in the oven for 45 minutes, turning half way through.

In a large saucepan or sauté pan, add a tbsp of oil, 1 clove of crushed garlic and the chopped carrot and leek. Let this cook for a minute or two then add in the white wine, let this bubble and fizz for a minute then crumble in the chicken stock cube and the milk. Put the chicken breasts in and cook for about 18-20 minutes (unless they are very large breasts). You can use your meat thermometer here to keep checking progress. You can add a little water to the pan if it looks like its getting too thick and frothy.

In a small saucepan, add the 2 egg yolks. Mix the 2 tbsp of water with the 1 tbsp of cornflower and add this to the eggs, whisk well. Once the chicken is poached, take it out of the liquor and cover with foil. Then take a cupful of the liquor and, through a sieve, put it in to the saucepan with the eggs and the cornflower, whisk it well off the heat. Then sieve more of the liquor into the eggy mixture and put it back on the heat and keep whisking it very well until the sauce thickens.

Make sure you add the chopped parsley to the sauce and season it and then serve it on top of the chicken. I hope you enjoy this one, we definitely did last night.

Rack of Lamb

Laura Nana2 Comments

It is true, I am a lamb fiend, I just love it and would happily eat it all day long. This is a quick and easy special occasion meal that keeps my husband smiling 🙂 The ingredients below are to serve 2 but you can easily scale it up. I cannot express how much easier you life will be if you invest in a good meat thermometer, it is my saviour.

Rack of lamb with port sauce sweet pot mash and beans

Ingredients

1 Rack of lamb
1 Rosemary sprig
1 Pack of Trimmed Green Beans
3-4 Sweet Potatoes
1 Shallot, small diced
200ml of Port (you can use red wine instead if you prefer)
100ml of lamb or beef stock

Method

If it hasn’t been done by your butcher, score the fat on the lamb in a diamond shape, put on a little oil and add salt and pepper. Just under the fat but above the rack bones, cut a small slit the entire length of the lamb. Season this well and add the Rosemary sprig into the gap. Fry the rack on a high heat for a few minutes to maximise the flavour then put it in the oven, around 180 degrees for a fan oven. Check it with your meat thermometer after about 15-20 minutes. And make sure you factor in 5-10 minutes resting time, just wrap it in a little foil and set aside.

Meanwhile, peel your sweet potatoes and steam them in a bamboo steamer (or boil them) for around 15 minutes, they’ll be done when a knife goes straight through them easily. Drain them well and then mash them, add salt and pepper and a little butter and/or cream if you want extra richness

To make the sauce cook your shallot in a small amount of butter for a few minutes to soften it, then pour in the port (red wine or Marsala would work too). Let this bubble and reduce for about 10 minutes and then pour in the stock. Again let it cook down a little. If you want your sauce to be thicker, you can mix 1 tbsp of cornflour with 2 tbsp of warm water and then pour it into the sauce. You can also pour in the juices from the rested meat for added flavour.

Cook your green beans according to the packet instructions and voilà! You are ready to serve!

Try this recipe out and let me know how you get on by leaving a comment below. Happy cooking!

Lamb Curry

Laura Nana1 Comment

Now I have about 4/5 recipes for lamb curry and they all taste amazing (obviously). This is one I recently came up with that I think works really well and doesn’t feel as if you’ve had to stand at the stove for hours….

Ingredients

1/2 or 1 whole leg of lamb.
1 onion, small diced
4/5 potatoes
1-2 cups of hot water
2 massalla cubes (or 1 thumb of ginger grated, 4 cloves of garlic chopped or crushed and 2 chillies chopped)
4 tomatoes, grated
1 Stick of cinnamon
2 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp of ground cumin, turmeric and ground coriander
1 bay leaf
4-5 cloves
4-5 cardamom pods

Method

First of all, trim your lamb of as much of the fat as you can, this will stop your curry being too oily. Then cut it up in to BIG chunks, not piddly small ones.

Put the ground spices (curry powder, cumin, turmeric, coriander) together in a big bowl. Put the lamb in and shake around until its all nicely coated. Fry the lamb off in batches in a frying pan with a little oil.

In a separate pan, add your cinnamon, cloves and cardamom to some oil. Wait until you start to smell the lovely aromas (but not too hot) then add your diced onion. Let it cook for 5 minutes whilst you keep stirring – you don’t want the onion to colour too much. Then throw in your massalla cubes (or ginger, garlic and chilli) along with the grated tomato. Let that cook out until you get a nice red paste, then put your fried lamb in and the cups of water. Put a lid on and let it cook for an hour then add in the potatoes. Wait until the lamb is tender, I usually let it cook for about 2 hours but just keep testing it until you are happy with it.

I serve mine with Rotli (similar to Chapati) and a salad made from 1 small diced onion (macerated in the juice of a whole lemon), 4-5 diced tomatoes and some chopped fresh coriander.

One Pot Coq au Vin

Laura NanaLeave a comment

Here’s a really simple mid-week dinner that packs in the flavour and doesn’t mess up too many pots and pans…

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Ingredients

4 whole chicken legs, cut into thighs and drumsticks
2 onions, each cut into 8 wedges
8 garlic cloves, left in their skins
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to drizzle
4 rashers smoked streaky bacon, snipped into 3cm pieces
2tbsp tomato puree
For the gravy
200ml (7fl oz) hot chicken stock
200ml (7fl oz) full-bodied red wine
250g chestnut mushrooms, halved
handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunky pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 180°C if its a fan oven.

Put the carrots, onions and garlic cloves (still in their skins) into a large roasting tin and put the chicken on top.. Drizzle with some oil, then scatter the bacon over the top. Season and roast for 30 minutes, until the chicken and vegetables are turning golden.

Dissolve the tomato purée in hot chicken stock then stir in the wine. Pour the liquid around the chicken and return to the oven for 30 minutes until rich and saucy.

Nestle the mushrooms in the sauce around the chicken, then roast again for 15 minutes until everything is golden. Season to taste, then scatter with the parsley to serve. Serve with mash or just some nice crusty bread.

My Green Massalla

Laura Nana3 Comments

Passed down to me by the experts, here is my green massalla which will be your flavour saviour for many a dish.

Ingredients

1kg green chilli
1/2 kg ginger
1/4 kg garlic
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Method

First don some suitable rubber gloves! Take the stalks off the chillies and drop them into your food processor. Take the skin off the ginger and chop it into a couple of lumps. Crush each garlic clove slightly to make it easier to remove the skin and add it all to the food processor. Give it a good blitz then stop, scrape down the sides and add the oil and salt and blitz again. You want it to be pretty fine.

Put the mix into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight and then pop them out of the tray and put them into a freezable bag.

You can just take one or two out each time and add it to whatever you are cooking. We use this for every curry we make including Butter Chicken Heaven and also my Hardcore Hot Ribs.

Butter Chicken Heaven

Laura Nana6 Comments

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Easily the quickest and tastiest chicken curry you can make mid-week. Don’t even bother with a takeaway as this recipe requires few fresh ingredients and mostly store cupboard staples….

Ingredients

For the marinade

  • 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • large pinch ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp chilli powder or fresh green chilli
  • 500g chicken breast sliced or diced into bite size pieces

For the sauce

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp ground fenugreek seeds, or 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • 100 g plum tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt

To serve

  • Chapatis or Rotis
  • onion, tomato and coriander salad

Method

In a large bowl, mix together the ingredients for the marinade, adding the chicken. Mix the marinade with the meat until it is well coated. Cover and refrigerate for 1/2 and hour.

To start the sauce, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions for 5-7 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Add the turmeric, cumin, salt and fenugreek. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Tip in the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes or until the onion mixture becomes thick.

Stir in the butter, then the chicken and marinade, and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes or until the chicken is done.

I always serve this with shop bought frozen chapatis and an onion, tomato and coriander salad mixed with a little oil and the juice of 1 lemon
I’ll get a picture of this up for you as soon as I make it again 🙂

Hardcore hot ribs

Laura Nana1 Comment

This is a recipe very close to my heart, it was a Friday night favourite for a very long time and still brings good memories of when my son was a baby.

You can vary the chilli content to your own taste but I recommend to have them as hot as you can bear, there is nothing quite like the finger licking taste with amazingly burning lips!!!

This a great recipe as its easily scaled up, all you have to do is make sure the marinade covers the ribs

Ingredients

minimum of 2 racks of pork ribs
Soy sauce
2 crushed Garlic
A thumb of Ginger
Chilli (the more the better)
1 stick of cinnamon bark
3 star anise
8 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp of tomato purée
A few glues of Worcester Sauce
A few flubs of fish sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
Finely chopped coriander stalks

To serve you’ll need:
Cooked rice
Onions
Tomatoes
Coriander chopped
Juice of 2 lemons

Put all the ingredients in a suitable pan or dish and stir well. Add the ribs and leave overnight in the fridge

Remove from the fridge and cover with foil. Place in a low oven 140 (fan assisted) for approx. 3-4 hours, best thing to do is test after 3 hours and see how soft they are

Remove from the oven and place on a flat pan covered in foil suitable for the grill. Pour a little honey over and grill until brown on all sides. Strain the sauce in a sieve and serve alongside the ribs with rice and a salad made of chopped tomatoes, coriander and onion macerated in lots of lemon juice (this will need about 20 minutes).

Bolognaise

Laura Nana1 Comment

Ok, there is a secret to really good bolognaise, its not an amazing secret but it is the key to success –  slow cooking, it is fundamental that it is cooked low and slow for at least a couple of hours to let the flavour develop and the mince to loose that horrid, hard, gristly texture it can sometimes have.

You’ll also notice that I don’t go in for adding vegetables and tonnes of over store cupboard favourites – its a meat sauce so lets focus on that although I won’t hold it against you if you chuck in a mushroom or courgette.

PS – I cook mine with lamb mince as I believe it has a better flavour but obvs you don’t have to 🙂

Ingredients

Oil (I use Canola or Olive)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (optional)
500g lamb mince
1 a can of tomato purée (the small tin cans you can get)
1 glass of red wine
Lamb stock cube
½ – 1 cup Water

Method

Heat the oil and add the onion and garlic (if using) and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or so.

Add the mince and let it get really very brown and cooked. Not adding too much to the pan at once will help here as the more you add the more juices are released and what you really want here is a dry pan for the mince to get brown instead of grey.

Add the red wine and let that cook out.

Add tomato puree – it will look quite red and tomato-ey but don’t be worried.

Add your lamb stock cube and some water, give it a good stir

Leave it for as long as you can up to a max of 3 hours – this’ll make the meat really soft and yummy. Keep checking that its not sticking on the bottom of the pan and add more water if it is.

Serve it with Rigatoni instead of spaghetti – it soaks up more of the sauce

Let me know how you get on 🙂